Aztec Sandbox is now in Alpha.

Over the last few months we've worked with a hardcore group of developers to improve the Sandbox.

We're now ready to expand that opportunity to all developers.

Want to be early to Aztec?

Join the Aztec Sandbox Alpha Program: Read our full post and apply, or read on for more context.

Our blog post:

Apply:
aztec.network/blog/announcin…
airtable.com/appfFcQfzsGYPL…

At Aztec Labs we believe building on L2 represents a huge opportunity to improve privacy UX.

That's why we're making privacy-first app development more intuitive than ever with painless state management.

Introducing Privacy Abstraction with Aztec:

medium.com/@azteclabs/pri… First off: why even build on L2? And why not build a zkEVM?

For starters, Aztec is not EVM compatible.

In fact at Aztec Labs we joke we're the first ones *not* to build a zkEVM.

And not only is Aztec not EVM compatible, privacy itself isn't EVM compatible.

Today we're proud to announce the next generation of our encrypted zkRollup with the same name that started it all:

Aztec.

Aztec is the first ever hybrid zkRollup, enabling both public and private smart contract execution in one environment.

It's Ethereum, encrypted.

👇 Aztec explodes the design space of what you can do on blockchains by allowing public-private composability.

Today, we’re proud to announce the roadmap for delivering Aztec to public testnet.

See our full announcement below, and read on for the tl;dr:

medium.com/@aztecnetwork/…

In February of this year, His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) published a consultation and call for evidence for the regulation of cryptoassets.

We're excited to share our response on how the UK can create a progressive regulatory regime tailored to DeFi's unique benefits to consumers: It's crucial to recognize the differences between centralized finance, decentralized financial protocols, and decentralized apps.

The UK's current "same risk, same outcome" approach could lump them all together, stifling innovation.

As we sunset our Aztec Connect product and build toward a next-gen encrypted zkRollup, there are some questions.

What's next for Aztec?

Rest assured--we aren't going anywhere.

Here is an FAQ addressing the most common questions: Q: Is Aztec itself shutting down?
A: Not at all.

Our team has raised over $125 million from investors like a16z and Paradigm to bring encryption to blockchain.

We're doing it with @NoirLang and our next-gen encrypted zkRollup.

https://twitter.com/aztecnetwork/status/1603436677040459776

Today we’re announcing the sunset of Aztec Connect.

1 week from today, deposits into the Aztec Connect contract will be disabled.

Users will be able to withdraw funds with no fees for one year.

All code is open source.

Read the full announcement here:

medium.com/@aztecnetwork/… At Aztec, our goal has always been to develop a truly decentralized general-purpose encrypted blockchain with the security of Ethereum.

Aztec and @AragonProject are proud to co-author a proposal to enable @nounsdao holders to vote in on-chain governance privately.

Private DAO voting has long been a holy grail.

Our @NoirLang implementation is a massive step toward achieving it for the Nouns community:

↓ Private voting is the "real-world" default, and for good reason!

Public voting has long been problematic for DAOs, creating:

- 11th hour voting problems
- vote coercion
- bandwagoning effects

Highlights from this morning’s @priv_alliance panel, featuring:

@Blulinski from @aztecnetwork

@traviscannell from @OrchidProtocol

@superanonymousk from @MantaNetwork

Chris Beck from @mobilecoin

@lindalu1111 from @OasisProtocol

Moderated by @michlai007 Chris:

Protocols need to protect users with UX. It has to be clear what guarantees are available when users interact with privacy tools.

Fully decentralized borrowing is live on Aztec, with:

- 26x cheaper gas fees than Layer 1
- no borrow minimums
- no interest

And of course, full privacy.

How?

Introducing the @LiquityProtocol x Aztec integration: First off, what is Liquity?

Liquity is an $ETH-only collateral decentralized lending protocol.

Deposit $ETH and borrow the $LUSD stablecoin.

You can access it today on zk.money:

A new grants season means new requests for proposal.

Here are a few Aztec Connect use-cases Aztec Grants is funding this year:

- Wallets
- Tooling
- Front-ends
- Aztec Connect Bridges
- and full-fledged Aztec-native applications

↓ Before we get going, all the following RFP's can be found here:

aztecnetwork.notion.site/Grants-RFPs-Az…

See something interesting?

Apply here: airtable.com/shr7NALhaRGc6O…

Aztec is proud to announce $100 million in Series B funding, led by @a16zcrypto. We're also thrilled to partner with A_Capital, @KingRiverVC, @variantfund, @svangel, @HashKey_Capital, @fenbushi, and @alumniventures, who supported the round.

See TechCrunch's exclusive coverage below, and read on for more:

techcrunch.com/2022/12/15/azt…

Pleased to announce that Aztec Connect has crossed 50,000 $ETH shielded since launch.

That's $60m+ of $ETH now being sent and earning yield privately. We've also crossed 500,000 network transactions:

Aztec Connect developers, rejoice!

Aztec Connect has launched a stable developer testnet.

Here's everything you need to know about Aztec Connect Testnet v1: Aztec Connect is the VPN for Ethereum:

A tool that allows Aztec users to use Ethereum services with privacy and cost-savings.

https://twitter.com/aztecnetwork/status/1545046832597700611

ConstitutionDAO attempted to purchase a copy of the US Constitution. They educated millions on the power of web3.

It fell short partly because of 1 small problem:

Privacy.

This year, @The_PeopleDAO and @juiceboxETH are trying again in partnership with @gonucleo and Aztec.

👇 In November 2021, dedicated contributors to @ConstitutionDAO made an attempt to purchase one of the two privately owned copies of the US Constitution.

They raised over $40 million for the auction at Sotheby's.

https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO/status/1461205307158372352

We just deployed a new signup flow for zkmoney that vastly improves on the user experience.

Aliases have been demoted.

Long live aliases!

👇 We started designing this new flow when we realized users were experiencing a common issue:

Forgotten aliases.

Side note: if you do suspect you've forgotten an alias, you can attempt recovery using our alias recovery tool:

https://twitter.com/aztecnetwork/status/1590385257206845441

Aave is live on Aztec.

The leading open source protocol for non-custodial liquidity markets, now with full privacy and 12x lower gas fees than L1: @aaveaave is the biggest liquidity protocol on Ethereum, with over $4 billion in value locked.

An innovator in permissionless lend/borrow, Aave allows you to supply assets to earn yield without financial intermediaries.

If you lost your prior alias during the migration from the old zkmoney system to Aztec Connect, we have a solution:

The alias recovery tool.

Read on if you are having trouble signing in with an alias you previously registered: First, the resource for a technical explanation of why users would need the alias recovery tool:
docs.aztec.network/zk-money/june2…

In the process of upgrading zk.money's security and moving away from scary Metam*sk signatures, some users' aliases were unable to be migrated.

You’ve heard of zero-knowledge proofs.

You’ve heard of SNARKs and PLONK and zkRollups.

But you haven't gotten started, because you don’t have a spare brain dedicated to learning cryptography.

That all changes today.

Introducing Noir, the universal language of zero knowledge. Noir is a Rust-based domain specific language (DSL) for creating and verifying zero knowledge proofs.

It’s the easiest way to write zk applications compatible with any proving system.

> Read our blog post
medium.com/@aztecnetwork/…

> Get started with Noir docs.aztec.network/developers/noir

Catch @maximvezenov at Devcon Bogota on Thursday October 13th at 1:30PM talking about our ZK circuit language, Noir! Noir is a Rust-based domain specific language that is backend agnostic and built upon open-source technology to enable flexible ZK language development.

We're thrilled to announce @eulerfinance as the first yield protocol supported on Aztec's 4626 bridge.

What is Euler?

How do you earn yield?

How do we achieve private lending at 7.5x lower gas fees than mainnet Ethereum?

↓ Euler is a non-custodial permissionless lending protocol that helps users earn interest on their crypto assets without relying on trusted third-parties.

Aztec is a privacy-first zkRollup.

But how do all the pieces actually work together?

Here's an explanation of the "Network" in Aztec Network: Aztec Network is a privacy-first zkRollup on Ethereum.

Most Aztec fans understand the public nature of Ethereum and how Aztec serves to solve Ethereum’s drawbacks: privacy and scalability.

In this piece we want to explain the elements of Aztec’s network architecture.